Episode description

When we understand how that language works, we communicate more effectively and in doing so increases our success.

Jonah Berger is doing profoundly interesting work. He's a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and he explores and discusses the science of behavior and how language can be used to influence it.

He's the international best-selling author of Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst. Jonah explains how everything we do involves language, from emails and presentations to how we communicate with our friends.

Jonah is leading in his field with over seventy papers published in top-tier academic journals, and his work is often featured in publications like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. He's been named one of Fast Company's most creative people in business and now has a new book "Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way".

In today's conversation, he reveals how changing a few words can change a person's life. His concept of "magic words'' is something that can have a big impact on our success.

Highlights from our conversation:  

• Jonah identifies six types of "magic words" that have a huge impact on our success.
• We talk about turning actions into identities.
• We explore how to ask the right questions.
• Jonah shares with us the connection between confidence and skill.
• We discuss why it's important to ask questions.
• Jonah helps us to understand more about the words we say to ourselves.

Enjoy!